Some things never change.

Roy Moore, the infamous former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court who was ousted from office when he ignored the federally-guaranteed freedom of religion and refused to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments from the courthouse, is up to his old tricks.

Moore, who is the Republican nominee for his old job, has promised he won’t attempt to put the Commandments back in the court building. But he is still pandering to the public on topics that aren’t related to his being a judge.

Specifically, at a campaign rally this past weekend, he said that same-sex marriage “will be the downfall of the country.” Further, he said the country can’t keep going in to debt.

While it is certainly Moore’s right to have those opinions, they have nothing to do with his campaign and decisions he’d be called upon to make as chief justice. There is no danger that the Alabama Court will consider a same-sex marriage case in an era of Republican-controlled government. Similarly, the deficit is not his domain.

Instead, he would be called upon to interpret Alabama’s unwieldy constitution, and to act as chief administrator of the state’s court system. If those are the issues that interest Moore, he should be running for Congress, not chief justice.